St. Paul & The Broken Bones Get Interstellar on "Apollo," First Single from Their New Album Young Sick Camellia

Birmingham, Ala. octet St. Paul & The Broken Bones have announced their third album, Young Sick Camellia, coming this fall, and shared its lead single, the interstellar“Apollo.” Young Sick Camellia, due out on Sept. 7 via RECORDS, comprises nine tracks that Paul Janeway and company laid down alongside R&B/hip-hop/dance producer Jack Splash, who has worked with the likes of Solange, Kendrick Lamar, Diplo, Alicia Keys, Cee Lo Greenand Mayer Hawthorne, among others.

“Apollo,” a slinky dance floor magnet that leads with funky guitar strums, spacey atmospherics and a relentless bass line, finds the band moving ever further from the ragged, gospel-infused Southern rock they made their name on, up and out of the pews, and into the cosmos. St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ signature soul—courtesy of Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Al Gamble (keys), Andrew Lee (drums), Allen Bransetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone) and Jeronne Ansari (sax)—sounds slicker than ever on the new song, in which Janeway proclaims his love to the heavens, “telling all the stars her name.” “Captain, can you hear me?” he later croons—we sure can, Major Paul.

Young Sick Camellia is said to be an album of introspection, one that finds Janeway at his most personal as a songwriter—his lyrics address the generational differences at work in his own family dynamic, searching for common ground and pondering tough questions: “How can we love those so dear to us while their thoughts, opinions and experiences are diametrically opposed to our own? How do we understand and relate to each other?” The band’s new record follows 2016’s acclaimed Sea of Noise (one of Paste’s top albums of that year) and their 2014 debut Half The City. Janeway and company will support their forthcoming record on a newly announced fall tour, tickets to which go on sale today, June 27, at noon ET.